Cultural Transmission of Tool Use in Young Children: A Diffusion Chain Study

Developmental and gender effects in the transmission of information about a tool-use task were investigated within a 'diffusion chain' design. One hundred and twenty-seven children (65 three-year-olds and 62 five-year-olds) participated. Eighty children took part in diffusion chains in which consecutive children in chains of five witnessed two attempts on a tool-use task by the previous child in the chain. Comparisons were made between two experimental conditions in which alternative techniques were seeded and a third no-model control condition. Children in the diffusion chains conformed to the technique they witnessed, in one experimental condition faithfully transmitting a technique absent in the no-model condition. Five-year-olds displayed more robust transmission than three-year-olds, and boys were both more competent and displayed stronger transmission than girls.     

以德治国与学校德育

切实加强和改进学校德育工作,是贯彻落实江泽民同志“以德治国”方略的重要基础。“以德治国”方略的实施,又为学校德育工作创造了更为有利的条件,提出了更新、更高的要求。     

Socratic Dialogue and Self-Directed Group Work: Strengthening Ethical Practice in Social Work

Socratic dialogue is a practical method of philosophical inquiry used to develop ethical and critical thinking among participants. On the other hand, self-directed group work is a practical intervention model based on social justice principles aimed at empowering service users and clients in social work and community work contexts. This conceptual article aims to reflect on a combination of the two models, arguing that group work interventions inspired by Socratic dialogue and self-directed group work may represent a way for social workers to develop a better ethical stance in their practice.     

Open Classes: Evaluation of an Innovation Program

A two-year research program was carried out to evaluate the workings of open education classes in primary schools. Four studies were conducted. Two were comparative: instruments testing cognitive and non-cognitive variables by the use of standardized as well as behavioural probe measures were administered to experimental (open) and control (traditional) classes. Tests of mathematics, reading, inquiry, cooperation, yielding to authority and creativity showed no differences between children in open and traditional classes. The work of children in the experimental class was less affected by the teachers' absence from the classroom than that of children in the control class. A third study involved interviews aimed at assessing children's views about the open classroom. A fourth study involved behavioural observations of the use a sample of children made of the special features of the open classroom.     

外来务工人员子女家庭教育调查分析

目的:了解外来务工人员子女的家庭教育情况。方法:采用随机整群抽样的方法,于2008年5月至2009年9月分别在浙江的温州市区、鹿城工业开发区、黎明工业区、瓯海经济开发区、温州市高科技工业区、龙湾工业区、黄龙工业区等多个外来务工者聚集地,对275位外来务工人员和281位外来务工人员子女进行问卷调查,并访谈了外来务工人员、子女,民工子弟学校的教师,教育部门等。结论:本次调查显示,外来务工人员子女家庭经济情况差,家庭教育意识淡薄,家庭教育缺乏正确的方式。     

Sense‐making in a social work office: an ethnographic study of safeguarding judgements

Social workers are routinely required to make finely balanced judgements on matters defined by subjectivity and uncertainty. Often, these judgements have to be made on the basis of information which is incomplete, inconclusive and contested. The way in which social workers make sense of such information is a crucial component of effective assessment and intervention. This ethnographic study of judgements in a social work office describes some of the practices which practitioners employed in making sense of information about children and young people's needs. The findings suggest that initial statements in dialogue may potentially act as signposts for preceding intuitive sense‐making. Observations offer insights into the way in which individuals construct professional responsibility. The study also suggests that sense‐making is not necessarily an individual activity but can be an activity which is shared between people and across teams. The findings indicate the importance of emotional intelligence and intersubjectivity in social work judgements.     

学校社会工作介入外来务工人员子女抗逆力养成——以上海市MH区X学校为例

抗逆力是指个人面对危机或逆境时,能够理性作出正向的、建设性的选择方法和应对策略的能力,是风险性因素和保护性因素相互较量的结果。生活环境的断裂造成外来务工人员子女内在保护性因素的不足与外在风险性因素的增加,风险防御机制的缺位与失灵对他们的成长与发展造成诸多负面的影响。学校社会工作通过个案辅导解构问题、小组介入重建自我认知、社区联合增进社会认同的方式来增加外来务工人员子女成长发展中的保护性因素,降低危险性因子的影响几率,提高其应对危机与困境的能力,最终建立起个体的抗逆力。     

Being in two places at once: renegotiating traumatic experience through the surplus reality of psychodrama

This article continues the dialogue started by Skolnik 2018 about the synergistic union of social work and psychodrama group approaches. The theoretical and clinical alignment of psychodrama and sociometry with social work with groups will be described. A practice illustration from Mirmont Treatment Center will be presented and discussed to explore some of the dynamics of psychodrama and, in particular, the therapeutic value of surplus reality. Surplus reality is a creative tool used to provide a therapeutic corrective emotional experience. Integrating insights from neuroscience, this article advocates for psychodrama as a valuable modality for clinical social workers engaged in group work.     

Is overcrowded urban living a factor in fertility decisions? A case study of metropolitan Calabar

Although the effects of housing conditions on human behavior have been studied by urban planners and sociologists, there is relatively little research on the effects of housing density and perceived overcrowding conditions on fertility. This paper uses the data from a survey of metropolitan Calabar, Nigeria, to study the relationship between overcrowding and decisions to limit family size. It was found that a high proportion of families living in overcrowded conditions still desired to have 3 more children. Cultural factors among the study population reveal a fondness for children which is not overridden by a desire for more living space. It is noted that actual urban overcrowding need not lead to declines in fertility, but that cultural factors and socio-pathological conditions may be more important contributors to the reaction of individuals to urban overcrowding.     

Effects of consistency between self and in‐group on children's views of self,groups, and abilities

Children's developing views of self and in‐groups inevitably conflict at points during childhood (e.g., a girl who thinks of herself as strong encounters the gender stereotype that girls are weak). How are self and group views reconciled in such cases? To test hypotheses based on Greenwald et al.'s model of self, group, and attribute relations, children (N = 107; ages 7–12; M = 9 years, 6 months) were assigned to novel social groups, denoted by red and blue t‐shirts, in their classrooms. Across 3 weeks, children completed three novel tasks and received false feedback on personal and group task performance, producing a between‐subjects experimental design in which children received either consistent or inconsistent self and group feedback. Immediately after receiving feedback, children answered questions about the particular task. Finally, upon completion of all three manipulations, children completed measures of views of the self and novel groups. As predicted, children's views of the tasks, self, and groups were influenced by feedback. Unexpectedly, children viewed themselves as more similar to the in‐group than out‐group irrespective of feedback consistency. Furthermore, children developed in‐group biased attitudes, but these biases were largely unrelated to feedback.     

解读美国反托拉斯法适用中的合理规则——兼论英美法上“贸易限制合同”案件的处理模式

合理规则作为美国反托拉斯法适用的一种基本方法,其产生问题一直是我国学界争论的议题。本文从帕克规则在英国法上贸易限制合同案件的最早适用情况入手分析,比较了帕克规则与合理规则之间的关系,认为帕克规则为合理规则在美国法上的生成奠定了基础。在美国法上,合理规则作为一种规制限制贸易与竞争案件的基本方法,是通过其在19世纪下半叶州法院处理部分性贸易限制合同案件活动而得以确立的,并发展为美国反托拉斯法适用的基本规则。这一演进过程中,充分体现了合理规则生成的时代性与自创性特征,启示了我国《反垄断法》法律方法设计的现实主义进路。     

Threads across the world: sewing resilience into the fabric of children’s lives

Strengthening the ecological resilience factors in the lives of children that have been abused can help them to navigate the healing process. It is through group work that children can share their “resilience wisdom” with one another as a healing community. There is a dearth of research on cross-cultural resilience programs for children who have been abused. This article explores a group work program that was conducted for one year in Bolivia and Australia. The results from each group reveal the similarities and the differences in outcomes between children from different cultural backgrounds that participated in a resilience group work program.     

The Role of the Group in Peer Group Entry

This study explored psychological conditions affecting children's receptiveness to a newcomer (the guest) in a peer group entry task. Subjects were 93 host dyads (48 male) of 7- to 9-year-old children. Hosts played a word-naming game for 5 min before being joined by a male or female guest. The hosts' pre-entry interaction was coded to reflect an orientation toward the game (agentic) or toward each other and toward experimental setting demands (communal). Hosts' psychological orientation predicted entry outcomes. Specifically, hosts of excluded children verbally competed with each other (an aspect of agency) more than hosts of children who entered. Male hosts competed more than female hosts and female hosts helped and encouraged each other (aspects of the communal orientation) more than male hosts. These findings suggest that the strategies and effort required by children to achieve group entry may depend on prior psychological conditions attending the interaction of the peer group.     

The task of taking care of children: methodological perspectives and empirical implications

Methods are not neutral instruments but construct the phenomena under investigation and convey meaning about what is important. This paper explores a methodological framework to investigate parental care for children. As part of the results, the following characteristics of how parents take care of their children are presented: continuous responsibility; predictable routines that are adjusted to the child; and interpretations and negotiations about developmental goals. The argument is that methodological approaches that analyse larger temporal units of contextualized practices as presented by the participants themselves open up for more context‐sensitive knowledge about the task of taking care of children. Thus, the understanding of the process of development is widened and specified in a way that may be useful for fields of practice where developmental psychology is ‘at work’.     

Longing to belong: children in residential care and their experiences of peer relationships at school and in the children's home

Resilience literature has stressed the potential of both children's educational experiences and their friendships to act as protective factors against adversity. However, less is known about how children living with adversity navigate these ‘everyday’ aspects of social terrain and the particular challenges that they face. This paper explores the meaning and experience of peer relationships to one group of children living in residential care in Ireland. Drawing on a larger study of school and care, it explores data gathered from 16 children, aged 8 to 18, who were living in eight different children's homes on the east coast of Ireland. The findings suggest that the children were acutely aware of their ‘care’ status and developed a number of strategies to manage this identity in school. It appears that more often than not, children described being left to their own devises to manage friendships and peer relationships. Thus, despite being a crucial source of both stress and support, peer relationships did not appear to be regarded as an issue that adults should be involved with. This raises questions for practice about what children should be supported with and the way in which peer relationships are potentially overlooked by social work, residential and school staff.     

Identifying and assessing cases of child neglect: learning from the Irish experience

Although child neglect is arguably the most prevalent form of maltreatment in the western world, studies of social work practice in cases of child neglect are limited. This paper seeks to add to the body of knowledge by describing a small‐scale study completed in the Republic of Ireland of social work assessments in cases of child neglect. The findings are based primarily on an analysis of case files, but reference is also made to practitioners’ and managers’ responses to a postal questionnaire and focus groups. The study findings highlight that social workers interpret the assessment task and process in different ways. Variations in the interpretation of the task appear to be influenced by workload pressures, resources and local systems, with teams focusing either on immediate safeguarding issues or on both safeguarding and the longer‐term welfare of the child. Individual variations amongst workers irrespective of team were more apparent in the way practitioners approached the assessment task. For example, practice varied regarding which professionals and family members were contacted as part of the assessment, the type of communication workers had with children and carers, and the use the social workers made of information on case files. The paper concludes with a discussion of the role of the team in determining the focus of assessments and the subjective factors which impact on the way the individual social worker works with children, families and other professionals.     

Family Influence on Caregiver Resistance,Efficacy, and Use of Services in Family Elder Care

This research investigated how resistance to use of services attributed to family members and primary caregiver self-efficacy and resistance influenced actual use of services. Data were analyzed from questionnaires completed by 224 persons engaged in informal elder care in the community. Tests of 6 hypotheses revealed that family influence on caregivers had a consistent, important influence on behavior and views of caregivers. Family resistance to use of formal services framed caregivers' feelings, preferences, and decisions ranging from their own perceived self-efficacy to actual obtainment of help outside the family. Professionals must include family members in their dialogue with primary caregivers about their plans for elder care. Suggestions for interventions to better understand family and caregiver resistance are discussed.     

The relation between children’s task‐specific competence and mothers’ controlling practices

In the guided learning domain of socialization, studies examining the antecedents of controlling parenting suggest that children’s lack of competence in a task could trigger controlling practices in that task. However, a stringent test of this relation remains to be conducted. This study examined this relation using a sample of 101 children (M_age = 10.21 years) and their mothers, a standardized measure of children’s competence in a task that was unfamiliar to the participants, and multi‐informant observational measures of maternal controlling practices during a mother–child interaction involving that task (rated by an independent coder and the children). Path analyses showed that children’s initial lack of competence in a task was related to higher levels of coded maternal controlling practices during a subsequent mother–child interaction involving that task, which in turn were positively linked to children’s perceptions of their mothers’ practices as controlling. A bootstrap analysis also confirmed that the indirect link from children’s competence to perceived maternal controlling practices through coded maternal controlling practices was significant. These effects were observed while controlling for mothers’ self‐reported controlling parenting style and perceptions of their children’s academic skills. Implications of these findings for the promotion of optimal parenting and future research directions are discussed.     

Partners in practice: Developing integrated learning opportunities on the Frontline child and family social work qualifying programme

The Frontline programme is a social work qualifying route, in England, featuring a different approach to curriculum design and delivery. Students are based in groups of 4, learning through practicing social work in a statutory child and family social work setting, alongside a Consultant Social Worker (in the role of practice educator). They are also supported by an Academic Tutor who works in partnership with the Consultant Social Worker to facilitate learning. A weekly “unit meeting” is a foundational aspect of the programme, providing opportunities for in‐depth discussion, teaching, and reflection on practice with families. The authors worked together over the first 2 cohorts of the programme and undertook action research to explore the learning opportunities that arise when academic staff and practitioners work side by side to support student learning in this model. Three broad themes were identified which were considered to be significant in helping students to learn which are explored in the paper:

• Learning through engaging in joint dialogue about practice in a unit meeting
• The influence of relationships on learning in social work
• The importance of a connected model of learning which has practice with children and families at its heart